


Hunter's Hub

by waywardbard



Series: The Future's Nothing New: Further Tales of the Next Generation [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Team Free Will 2.0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-16
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-23 15:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/623451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardbard/pseuds/waywardbard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a string of deaths with the only connection between them being an email attachment, Asher passes the case on to his big brother Michael.  Things get personal when their friend and fellow paranormal informant Lucas Barr becomes a target. Michael Paulson, Asher Paulson, Erika Miller-Paulson, Lucas Barr; mostly gen, with Erika/Mike undertones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by The Ring and FeardotCom.

The baby was crying again. It had to be the fourth time in the past six hours, or maybe he’s dreaming it, but Mike’s pretty damn sure it’s crying since it’s right in his ear. Erika shifted on the bed, only half conscious, and then his son went quiet as he found his mother’s breast and latched on.  
  
 _Needy little brat,_ Mike thought fondly, reaching out to stroke the fuzzy little head. No doubt he’d be changing him in the next bout of crying, since that’s what they agreed on. At night, she feeds and he cleans, and in the morning they switch to bottles and swap sides. Like every part of their partnership, everything’s equal. He wouldn’t have it any other way.  
  
Then the phone buzzed on his nightstand and, because he’s already awake, Mike eased sideways out of the bed, grabbed it, and headed towards the bathroom before checking the faceplate. **BRO** lit up the bottom by the swipe-bar, accompanied by Asher’s face pressed against a glass window, making some sort of goofy look. Mike ran his hand over his face, then brought it to his ear.  
  
“Dude, it’s four in the morning. Not all of us are online playing WoW. I’m tryin’ to sleep.”  
  
“Well if you were succeeding, you wouldn’t have answered, huh?” Asher’s chipper voice said. Michael rolled his eyes, but smirked anyway.  
  
“Dick.” He settled on the toilet seat, leaning his weight onto his knees as he tried to keep his voice low. “What’s up?”  
  
“If I’d looked at the clock, I probably wouldn’t have called. But I’ve come across something pretty screwy and I had to know if I was crazy.” Asher was speaking pretty fast; Michael could bet that there had been Red Bull involved that night. “So, do you know if ghosts can go digital?”  
  
Mike frowned, his brow furrowing. “Never _heard_ of it, but... haunted objects exist.”  
  
“Not quite an object. See, thing is, I noticed on the Hub that there were hunters reporting on likely ghost deaths, all with the same M.O. Except they were thousands of miles apart, some even on the same night. So me and Luke started working on it and he hacked the vics systems, and they’d each gotten this same email. It’s like they got a virus, only none of the computer files or anything was touched.”  
  
Michael pushed up to standing again, his eyes drifting to the closed door. “And you’re sure it’s not just some group of cross-country serial killers havin’ fun?” he asked, running over the logistics in his head.  
  
“No,” Asher said honestly. “We didn’t want to have a go at getting into any government systems unless it was even feasible, so we don’t know what the police reports are like. But if hunters are saying they think it’s ghosts, then you pay attention.”  
  
Mike nodded uselessly in response. “I say look into it. Check and see if the vics are dying the same way, with no forced entry and no prints. Maybe get a few other hunters out to check nearby locations to be sure.”  
  
“Alright, cool, will do.” A pause. “So the kid keeping you up?”  
  
“He’s just wakin’ up like clockwork every two hours.” Mike walked in front of the mirror, then stood and looked into it thoughtfully. “I take it that’s your doing.”  
  
“Fuck, no, man, he came to me that way,” Asher said with a laugh.  
  
“That’s what you said about the bubble blowing thing, and I distinctly remember him not doin’ that last time I left him with you,” Mike retorted, scrunching his eyebrows up and then bringing them down again as he leaned in to look at his face. He was getting a wrinkle in his forehead. Right between his brows. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned it?  
  
“Kid’s a natural-born party animal, what can I say?” Asher teased. Mike let out a small huff, turning away from the mirror again and moving to sit back on the toilet seat again.  
  
“What are you bringing to potluck tomorrow?”  
  
There was a long pause. “Probably something with macaroni and cheese involved.”  
  
“Dude, it’s mom’s birthday,” Mike said with a wry smile. “At least put some bacon in it. Make an effort.”  
  
“Shit. Forgot today was Saturday. Right. Bacon or something.”  
  
Mike had to bite his palm to keep from laughing. “Y’wanna add your name to our card, then?”  
  
“Dude, that would be awesome.” Asher sounded relieved.  
  
“You’re SOL on the gift-getting, though. But I think she mentioned wanting the sixth season of _Time and Again._ ”  
  
“Jerk. But thanks. Ugh. Guess I better go to bed then. My nice, quiet, baby-free bed.”  
  
Mike rolled his eyes again. “I’ll make sure we take an extra three days of detox after this hunt if it becomes one then. See you in eleven hours. And make sure to wash yourself.”  
  
“Hur hur, dick. Night.” With that he was gone. Mike scrubbed his hand over his face and through his hair, let out a small sigh, and left the bathroom again after clicking off the light. For all that he never got tired of doing the superhero schtick, now that he was a dad, he found himself wanting to leave home less and less. The idea of dying and his kid never knowing who he was outside of photographs and youtube videos scared him a little.  
  
He headed back toward the bed and eased back into it as carefully as he could. Erika had rolled over, to evenly distribute Cole’s feedings. She only opened her eyes a sliver to look at Mike. “Asher?” she asked, voice hoarse. Michael gave a nod, then leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead.  
  
“Hopped up on the Wings. He wanted to info-check. It’s nothing yet, though. Go back to sleep.”  
  
“Once the miner’s done gnawing on me,” she said with a small smile, lifting the sheet back a bit. “Swear his appetite’s growing.”  
  
Michael let out a breath of a laugh, stroking his son’s head again. “We can put him full-on with the bottles if you want,” he supplied, inching in a little closer to kiss her. “Maybe rig up some contraption on the crib that lowers it into his mouth on sound activation.”  
  
That got a laugh and kiss from her. “It’s fine. I’d wake up anyway. Used to be such a sound sleeper,” she said wistfully. Mike nuzzled his nose against her, moving the hand on his son’s head up to stroke her cheek.  
  
“Can’t say I don’t mind you sleepin’ half naked,” he teased.  
  
“Mm, yeah, you love my saggy tits,” she said with a side smile. Mike immediately scoffed at her, sliding his hand down to the one his son wasn’t occupying.  
  
“I’d love ‘em even if one was bigger than the other. Don’t you get started on that body-hate crap, darlin’. I don’t wanna go another round to the sound of wailin’, but I will if that’s what it takes to remind you.”  
  
She laughed. “Sicko,” she said, even as she leaned forward for another kiss.

* * *

There was no question that the boys were doing dishes that night. Mom and Erika went to lounge in the living room, cooing over Cole, and Asher raced to the kitchen to snag the drying spot. Michael grabbed him by the arm before he got too far though, yanking him back and scrambling around him.  
  
“Fuck,” Asher growled, snagging Michael’s shirt and trying to pull around him, but Michael just laughed, grabbing up the towel and holding it up high above Asher’s head.  
  
“Take that, sucker.”  
  
“You suck hardcore, man. Just this once,” he huffed, even as he plugged the sink and turned on the water with practiced ease. Mike licked his index finger, then drew a line in the air on his right side.  
  
“10 to four, little bro. You’re gettin’ slow.” He looked over his shoulder, then lowered his voice a bit. “Any news?”  
  
Asher shrugged, dumping the silverware in the soapy water. “Lucas is working on tracing the virus back to the source. Playing with the idea of just forwarding the virus to one of us and opening it up. The emails all say ‘you gotta see this’ so that could be it.”  
  
“Except that the one common link between all of them so far is that email,” Mike said, looking at Asher with a tense expression. “Until we know for sure what’s going on, don’t be careless.”  
  
“Hey, I know. But we’re not going to get surprised, we know what stops a ghost.” Asher passed over a plate, which Michael tested with a finger sweep before scrubbing it dry. “We’re trying to fence off the attack, but no idea what other branches went out.”  
  
“Can’t stop a ghost if you can’t knock out the remains,” Mike warned. “So until we know where it’s coming from, keep a safe distance.”  
  
Asher pursed his lips before nodding, scrubbing at the casserole dish. Michael side-eyed him, sensing the strain in his brother’s shoulders, and knew deep down that he was going to do his own thing. He always did, and it always worried Mike.  
  
“I just don’t want you gettin’ hurt, Ash,” he said quietly. “I mean, who else is gonna take care of mom?”  
  
“Man, it’s not going to come to that. We’re just exploring options,” Asher said firmly. It was Mike’s turn to go quiet, taking the next plate and drying it. Asher bit his lip, eyes focused on the dishes. “Thanks, though. For your advice on it. You always give me an answer without having to jump through hoops.”  
  
“You’ve saved my ass more than once with your leet skills, man,” Mike said, knocking against his shoulder lightly. “Way I see it, I rely on you far more than you rely on me.”  
  
A smile quirking at the corners of his mouth, Asher knocked him back. “Yeah, well I’m just paying you back.”  
  
“Pretty sure you’re way over the required repayment, little bro,” Mike said. “C’mon, let’s hurry up. There’s still cake to eat. Love me some cake.”  
  
“Yeah, that’s why you’re gettin’ pudgy there, daddy,” Asher teased, handing the last dish over and flicking soapy water at his face. Mike let out a laugh, twirling the towel into a rope and snapping it at him.  
  
“Jerk.”  
  
With a manly squeal, Asher grabbed for his arm to try to wrestle away the towel, only for Mike to swing an arm around his neck and yank him down for a noogie.  
  
Asher jerked back, trying in vain to escape. “Ah! Fucking--”  
  
“Asher!” their mother barked from the other room. “Language! There are women and children present!”  
  
Michael grinned wider, following the backing-up motion and bringing his arm back to whump Asher on the backside.  
  
“Say my name, bitch.”  
  
“ _Argh!_ ” Asher growled, batting at the back of Michael’s knee, but Michael just laughed and continued to terrorize him.  
  
“C’mon,” he cajoled, dragging out the vowel. “Eleven’s a great number. Say it.”  
  
“Asshole!” Asher wheezed out before doing the only thing he could think of, collapsing his legs underneath him and sitting hard.  
  
“ _Asher!_ ”  
  
Michael grinned wider. “Now you’re thinking with your noggin’. If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go and eat your cake.”  
  
“Ja-- jerk!” he huffed, scrambling up and after him.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment “noholdsbarr” signed on, Asher hit dial, his knee bouncing under the desk as he waited. Lucas’ face finally popped up on screen, and Asher grimaced at him. “Michael says we can’t do it.”  
  
Lucas had a bowl of what could only be instant ramen noodles tucked against his chest, and his face pinched in protest the moment Asher finished.  
  
“Michael probably said  _you_  couldn’t do it,” he pointed out, stuffing his face with another forkful of noodles. “But Michael is not the boss of me.”  
  
Something in Asher twinged, part envy, part concern. “Dude, c’mon, he knows these things. He says you can’t ax ghosts without their remains anyway, so opening that attachment would be like overly complicated suicide.”  
  
“There wasn’t anything in the attachment,” Lucas pointed out nonchalantly. “Just an embedded picture link to a website that’s been closed down. I’m running it through Google Archives to see if anything comes up, but apparently the Feds closed it down for an investigation.”  
  
Asher stared at him. “You fucker. You weren’t supposed to do anything without me.”  
  
“It’s not my fault you were late,” Lucas said with a wry smile. “I waited ten minutes. Shit needed to get done. So it isn’t a virus, but that doesn’t mean--”  
  
There was a notification sound on Lucas’s side of the screen, and his eyes immediately darted down to the right-hand corner, then he put his bowl down to grab for his mouse.  
  
“What’s up? Mom gchatting you?” Asher said wryly. Some of the color in Lucas’s face drained away, and then there was sound in the background again, only this time it sounded like a video.  
  
“Got another email. Hang on, let me share screen.”  
  
“Wait, from the ghost email? We’re not supposed to--” Asher cut off as a video popped up, showing a grey, darkly lit room with a girl sitting in the center, tied to her chair. She couldn’t be more than fifteen and seemed to be crying, though the tape over her mouth muffled the sound. There was a battery on the table next to her, and black burn marks on her skin. Suddenly another figure walked into the screen, wearing gloves and a ski mask. He held a knife.  
  
“Luke, turn it the fuck off!”  
  
Lucas’s voice sounded strange over the visual Asher was being assaulted with.  
  
“Dude, I’m  _trying_ \--”  
  
His mouse was hovering over the button, and Asher could see him depressing the x-button over and over, but the video wasn’t going away. The ski-masked man came closer, then stabbed her in the stomach. She screamed, thrashing violently, as he cut her up the middle, then reached in and pulled out her large intestine.  
  
“Fuck, fuck,  _fuck--_!”  
  
The task manager appeared above the video, but the sound continued to play in the background.  
  
“How the fuck is it doing that!? I’ve never had a file refuse to close before!”  
  
Asher’s stomach lurched and he shoved back his chair, sticking his head between his knees and trying not to retch. The girl’s muffled screams seemed to go on forever before dying out. Shaking, Asher pushed to his feet.  
  
“L-Luke, get salt, now. Circle of salt.”  
  
For a moment there was no sound on the other end. The mouse moved across the screen, clicked out of the task manager.  
  
But the video was still playing. The girl was bleeding steadily out on the floor. Then her head suddenly raised and she looked directly into the camera.  
  
“What th--”  
  
The call suddenly cut out.  
  
“ _Luke!_ ” Asher clicked desperately but “noholdsbarr” was offline. His heart felt like it was going to explode from his chest. He snatched up his phone, scrolling to Mike’s number as he snatched up his keys.  
  
The phone rang four times before going to voicemail. “Mike man, please,” he said, his voice hitching as he locked his apartment door. “Call me back. Luke opened the email, and I can’t reach--”  
  
His phone beeped and he struggled with it as he ran down the stairs; Mike was calling him. It took him a couple tries to answer. “Mike! Mike, I’ve got to get to Vegas!”  
  
“ _What?_ ” Mike replied, sounding a little surprised at the urgency in his voice. “ _What’s going on? What happened?_ ”  
  
“Luke opened the  _fucking_  email!” God, he couldn’t let himself break down, not now. “We were skyping and he showed me the screen and there was this girl getting killed and then she  _looked_  and the screen, and he was gone!”  
  
“ _Did you try his phone? Maybe he’s just fucking with you--_ ” Mike interjected, but already Asher could hear him moving quickly on the other end of the phone, as though he were getting on his coat and getting his bag.  
  
“I  _saw_  her die, he took out her intestines, she was screaming.” He leaned against his car, closing his eyes and breathing deep.  
  
“ _Just breathe, man. I’m heading right over._ ” There was a pause before he added, “ _Can you draw her face? Did you get a good enough view of it?_ ”  
  
He shook his head. “There was duct tape over her mouth. She had brown hair, ‘bout shoulder length. She was-- she was maybe fifteen.”  
  
“ _Jesus..._ ”  
  
Asher’s phone alert suddenly beeped, making him jump. “W-wait, I got something.” He pulled the phone from his ear, flicking the email open. There were two different emails: both from Lucas, but the second and newest one’s subject line caught his attention:  
  
 **DO NOT OPEN THE FIRST EMAIL, MORON.**  
  
Another alert immediately pinged as a third one came in.  
  
 **IM OK. DSL IN PANIC RM. GHOST’S CB.**  
  
He gave a breath of a laugh, sinking to the pavement. “He’s okay!” he said, even as he started writing back.  
  
 _ **ya kinda saw that. you fuckin moron. we’ll come get you.**_  
  
He put the phone back to his ear. “He’s in his panic room. We got some time.”  
  
“ _Me’n Erika will head out asap, then. We’ll bring Cole over._ ”  
  
Asher’s smile slipped. “I thought...” But what could he say? Mike and Erika were the real hunters, and they needed someone watching Cole. He let out a breath. “Okay.”  
  
He could hear a knock on the other side of the phone, before Mike asked, “ _What? Spill it._ ”  
  
“I thought I was going this time,” he said quietly. Erika’s voice could be heard on the other end, and Michael covered the mic to speak to her for a moment, then pulled his hand away.  
  
“ _Dude, we’ve talked about this,_ ” he said quietly. “ _We can’t both go. It isn’t fair to mom._ ”  
  
“I know, I know,” Asher said, rubbing his forehead. “I wasn’t thinking. You’ll...you’ll just have to punch Luke in the face for me, I guess.”  
  
“ _I’ll get you a ticket so you can fly out and see him, once we’ve ganked the girl. I promise._ ”  
  
“Sounds like a plan. It’ll give me enough time to teach Cole how fun it is to scream really,  _really_  loud,” Asher teased.  
  
“ _Fine, I’ll leave him with mom,_ ” Mike grumbled in response. “ _I’ll see you in 48 or less. Be safe._ ”  
  
“Wait, no, I didn’t mean that. C’mon, it’s her birthday. I’ll take the kid and teach him to sleep and everything.” Asher spoke a little quicker than he intended. Mike humphed over the phone, and there was a murmured voice on the other end.  
  
“ _Yeah, lemme just go get his carseat, I’ll meet you over there--_ ” He said, presumably to Erika. “ _Is there milk in the fridge? Or should-- okay. Yeah. Ash? I’ll be there in ten._ ”  
  
“Alright, see ya.” Asher pushed to his feet, finally feeling somewhat calm again. They had a plan, and he wasn’t going to be spending the night alone.

* * *

Las Vegas was a two day drive if they were being slow, and given that Mike had no idea exactly how much food (if any) Lucas had stocked up, he made a point of  _not_ being slow. Not only would Asher be especially pissed if something happened to his friend, but he’d feel responsible, and Mike knew what that would result in. He loved his little brother, and would easily go to the moon and back if Ash had said he liked moon rocks, but the pauses between him asking how to hunt and if he could come along on the next one were getting smaller and smaller every year. If he wasn’t careful, Mike knew he was going to swing by Asher’s apartment one afternoon to ask him something, and the younger man would already be gone.  
  
Erika had a tablet computer open in her lap and was rapidly finger-sweeping through the screens, occasionally typing, but generally looking very focused. Michael slid a hand onto her knee, squeezed it, then left it there.  
  
“You should get a little rest,” he said gently. “We’ll switch at the next gas station and I can pick up where you left off.”  
  
“Yeah, you just want to look at porn,” she said, even as she gave his hand a grateful squeeze. Michael scoffed at her, then brought her hand up to kiss the back of it.  
  
“I’ll be good. Promise.”  
  
Quirking her fingers back, she gave his nose a honk. “You usually are.”  
  
“I’ll sing you a lullaby if I have to,” he said, turning his head just enough to give her a crooked little smile. “Don’t think I won’t.”  
  
With a breath of a laugh, she turned off the tablet, setting it in the door pocket. Then she pushed her seat to reclining. “Go on then,” she said, turning to him expectantly. That made Michael laugh. She’d teased him viciously in the past about how horrible his singing voice was.  
  
“Which will you go for, which will you love. Which will you choose from the stars above. Which will you answer, which will you call; Which will you take for your one and all. And tell me now which will you love the best.”  
  
She bit her lip in a smile, taking his hand and playing with his fingers. “So lucky you’re cute.”  
  
“You keep sayin’ that, but I don’t believe you,” he returned, squeezing her hand lightly again before he continued on.  
  
She closed her eyes as she snuggled against the seat, her free hand drawing shapes along his knuckles and wrist. He kept going on, his voice pitched low and soft, until her hand finally came to a lazy stop. A part of him hated how suddenly alone he was with her being asleep, but there were ways around that. Gently slipping her hand out from his, he brought it up to his bluetooth and flipped it into the on-setting.  
  
“Call Asher Paulson.”  
  
It rang four times before someone picked up, and Michael heard a very familiar wail before Asher’s voice chimed in. “Everything alright?” he said, voice pitched over the crying in the background.  
  
“Maybe I should be asking you that question,” Mike said quickly, frowning as he stared out into the distance on the highway road. “Give him a popsicle, he’s probably got teething pains.”  
  
“Crap, don’t think I got any. Think he’d chew on a bag of frozen peas?”  
  
“Soak a hand towel with water and stick it in the freezer for ten minutes,” Mike replied. “There should be a numbing stick thing in the bag, too. Just put it on his bink and stick it in his mouth.”  
  
“Right, got it.” The wailing shifted further to the background. “What’s up?”  
  
“Erika’s asleep and I’m driving, so I thought I’d give you a ring, see how you’re holding up.” His lips turned up slightly. “Any more word from Luke?”  
  
“Yeah, chatted some. He’s seeing what he can find on the video’s source, see if he can point you toward the bones. Hey, Cole boy, c’mon, we’re gonna make it better,” he soothed. It took a minute or so more, but the crying finally quieted. Asher let out a breath. “I just thought he was pissed at me for still not having boobs.”  
  
“Welcome to my life,” Mike said with smirk, casting his gaze briefly at his sleeping wife. He was trying very hard to keep his voice quiet, but it was likely she was half-awake listening. Hoping to buffer it out, he turned the radio on and up to three on a soft rock station. “I’d say try and watch the video again, see if you can ID the background, but that’s just asking for trouble. Ask him to draw the girl and put it up on a website if she’ll let him.”  
  
“Yeah, I don’t think a stick figure is gonna do anyone any good,” Asher said wryly. “He’s following up on the crime. The video came from a website under FBI investigation. If we know the killer, then we can find out the victims and narrow it down.”  
  
“That should be easy-peasy for Luke. Soon as I make sure he’s got food and water enough to last him a couple more days, I’ll head in that direction and call you the minute the job’s done.”  
  
“So, since it’s a video thing, do you think the ghost will only latch onto him? Or will you and Erika be possible targets, too?” Asher sounded more curious than worried.  
  
Mike chewed his lip, trying to come up with a quick answer and already knowing that the two-second delay would give Asher something to be concerned about. “Well, from what you mentioned, the connection  _is_  the video, so hopefully we’ll be fine.” Of course, there hadn’t been any actual attempts at  _stopping_  the ghost before. If it was a ghost. The logistics still made absolutely no sense to him, but then it clicked.  
  
“Wait... what if her blood got on the keyboard.”  
  
“What?” There was a frown in Asher’s voice. “Like, when he killed her? I’d say that’s definitely a possibility. Why?”  
  
“Well, it’s an object. It can get up inside the works, gum it up, maybe. I mean, we live in the freaking future, dude. If a ghost can throw furniture at you, I’m sure the newer ones can get on instant messenger.”  
  
There was a long silence. “But...you think I’m really talking to Luke, right?”  
  
“Luke’s not dumb, man,” Mike reassured him quickly. “But make sure to ask him something only he’d know, just to be sure.”  
  
“Yeah. I mean, he sounds like him. And he told me not to open the infected email, so the ghost wouldn’t do that.” Asher’s breathing was overly slow, and Mike’s frown deepened.  
  
“I’ll get a pic of him the moment he lets me in and send it to you first thing,” he said. “We’re about 15 hours out if we keep going through the night, and we will.”  
  
“Yeah, okay. Just be careful.” There was a pause. “I wish I could help.”  
  
“Follow the trail. There’s still people out there getting killed, dude. I’ve never heard of a ghost being in more than one place at a time, but hell, if she’s online, she can go anywhere in half a second.” Mike bit his lip. “We can’t stop her, but we can stop the email, or at least slow it down, right? Try and get something counter-viral. Some video or something. Message boards, all that stuff.”  
  
“Yeah, been doing that. Luke, too.” His voice was a little strained. Then he let out a breath. “Wanna say hi to Cole?”  
  
“Sure. Put him on speaker, yeah? And turn me up loud.”   



	3. Chapter 3

It was a trick getting into Lucas’s house, given he was all locked up and blocked off, but when they did it was obvious that the ghost of the girl had thrown a tantrum. One table had a leg broken and turned over, its books and belonging strewn about the floor, along with several other pieces of knocked over furniture. Mike held his gun steady as he lead the sweep through the space, but the coast was clear. Wherever she was, the ghost wasn’t out to hurt him or his wife.  
  
Yet.  
  
As they got up to the iron door, Mike called out, “Olly olly oxen free!”  
  
“I hope you brought burgers!” a voice echoed from behind it as there was the  _shunt_  of more than a few locks. The door swung open, Luke grinning out at them, though he didn’t step past the threshold.   
  
Mike slung his gun onto back, grinning as he turned his sidebag around and pulled out a take-out bag. He leaned over to pass it to him. “We’ll salt up real quick, just hang tight a few minutes more.”  
  
“Thanks, man,” Luke said, already digging into the bag and ripping open a burger. The two hunters each pulled out a canister of salt, moving with speed and efficiency as they drew a line over every potential entry point. When they finished, they turned back towards Luke.  
  
“Around the computer, too,” Luke said, nodding towards the Mac tower.  
  
“Damn, that sucks,” Mike said, doing as he was told.   
  
“This is going to make me a lot more paranoid, that’s for sure,” Erika said, shooting Luke a smile. “No more opening any attachments on my phone at least.”  
  
Luke smiled back, finally stepping out, already halfway through the burger. “Thanks for getting here so quick. Next time I’ll keep my rations updated rather than letting them expire.”  
  
“Says Mister Doomsday,” Mike replied with a smirk. “What else do you need? We can go get it for you before we head out. Ash would kick my ass if I left you in a lurch.”  
  
“Hell, now that I can reach my kitchen, I’m pretty well set. And Ash and I worked through the night; we got a list of victims at least.”  
  
Mike slid his bag off his shoulder, then turned his gaze to the table, giving it a thoughtful look before he started gathering up a couple stacks of hardbound books. “How many total?”  
  
Luke grimaced. “Ten. All of them kids. The guy’s locked up awaiting trial, so I think the ghost is lashing out however she can.” He handed a list to Erika, whose lips were pressed so tight they had all but disappeared.  
  
“Please tell me he was at least shopping locally,” Mike said, his voice heavy with bitterness as he finished righting the table, then moved to slide an arm around his wife and look down at the list she was holding.  
  
“Vaguely. Most of them in San Diego. Two in Phoenix, when he was visiting his sister, apparently. They don’t think there are more, but no one’s certain.” Luke finished off his burger then grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen.  
  
“Arizona,” Mike mumbled, his frown deepening. “Awesome. At least we fixed the A/C last week.”  
  
“Do you have a description of her or sketch we could work off of?” Erika asked.  
  
“We could probably find headshots online, give you a stack to compare to at least, if you don’t, now that we’ve got this,” Mike added.  
  
“Yeah, that was next on the agenda. Might mean hacking into a couple of their Facebook accounts,” Luke said, grimacing again.  
  
“Might not  _need_  to. Most kids don’t block anything these days. It’s probably one of the many reasons they were targeted.” Mike gave Erika’s side a light squeeze, then pulled back and got his bag again, finding the tablet computer and bringing it to the table. Luke settled next to them as they started going through the girls’ names. Luke stopped him at the fifth one.  
  
“That...that might be her. Email a shot to Asher to be sure.”  
  
Michael leaned in to look at the web address, then immediately started texting the full length of it to his brother so he could check it.  
  
“Where’s she located?” he asked without looking up.  
  
“She’s one of the Phoenix ones. Bit of a drive but not too bad.”  
  
Michael’s phone buzzed. Asher had texted him back.  _looks like her. everything good?_  
  
“Ash says it looks like her.” Mike turned to look to Erika, brows lifted. “All systems go?”  
  
“I’m ready when you are,” she said with a side smile.  
  
 _Looks like we’re heading to AZ,_  Mike texted back, then dropped the phone back into his pocket in exchange for a notepad and a pen. “Name and last known address, Luke?”  
  
“Miranda Harris, 1223 East Thomas Road. You need an extra hand or anything?”  
  
“I think we’re good,” Mike said as he wrote down the information. “We’ll be back before you can list all the capital cities.”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll take your word on that,” Luke said with a smile.  
  
Mike’s pocket buzzed again.  _luke?_  
  
The older brother tutted, dialed up his brother’s number, and passed the phone to Lucas. “Your boyfriend wants to make sure you’re okay,” he teased.  
  
Luke gave a laugh, taking up the phone. “Jesus, Mom, I’m fine.” He listened with a grin, his eyes flicking to Mike. “Yeah, well, you think you’d know him by now. Besides, you’re the one stuck at home with a baby; who’s the bigger idiot?”  
  
Mike pulled a face at him, one arm circling around Erika again as the two friends reconnected verbally for the first time since the scare.  
  
“Yeah, well, if I hadn’t watched the video, we wouldn’t know where to go now, so shut up. I gotta go; your brother’s off to kill a ghost and he needs his phone. Catch you online.”  
  
Luke hung up, handing the phone over. Mike brought up the camera application.  
  
“Say  _Ghostfacers,_ ” he said, pressing the take-photo button on the viewing panel. Erika burst out laughing.  
  
“Ah fuck, man,” Luke said, rubbing the flash out of his eyes. “What was that for?”  
  
“So he has spank bank material,” Mike replied with a grin, sending it to his brother before dropping the phone into his pocket yet again. “Right, time to go. Be safe, carry salt.”  
  
“You, too. Bye,” he said, giving Erika a quick hug. “And get her quick. I can’t stay holed up in here forever.”  
  
“I can just imagine you like that kid in Home Alone with the pizza delivery guy,” Mike said, smirking even as he led Erika out the door.

* * *

Erika held the keyboard gingerly in its evidence bag. She knew it was ridiculous, what with all the bodies they’d handled, but there was something disturbingly intimate about holding an object that had been covered in the last blood shed by a young girl. She tried to push the thought aside; focusing too much on the victim made the job harder.  
  
“Need a hand with the kerosene?” she asked, looking back at Mike as he pulled equipment from the trunk.  
  
“Nah, I got it,” Mike said, huffing out a breath from the weight. After the lot of it was pulled out he shut it, hefting the shovel and the tank in one arm and his gun in the other. The bag with salt and munitions he left to her. “Can’t wait for this one to be over.”  
  
She smirked, grabbing the bag and flicking on her flashlight to lead the way into the dark cemetery. “Can you think of any you  _didn’t_  want to be over?”  
  
“This one more than most,” he said quietly. “It’s a little too close to home for my taste. If Luke hadn’t opened that email, Ash might’ve.”  
  
Her lips pressed tight with sympathy. “He wouldn’t have. You told him not to.”  
  
“Yeah well, my word isn’t from the mouth of God,” Mike replied, feeling his stomach clench and dip. “He’s been heckling more and more about having to stay at home.”  
  
This wasn’t a new topic, so she was very ginger as she said, “Have you thought about taking him on one sometime?”  
  
Michael swallowed, his jaw tense. “You think he’d willingly go back to just sitting still once he got involved?”  
  
“This job isn’t exactly Disneyland,” she pointed out. “Right now he has no idea what it’s like. If he had to do the work, to deal with the dirt and blood and lying, he might realize he prefers sitting still.”  
  
“Yeah, maybe,” Mike mumbled. “I should get Luke to talk to him. Tell him why it’s a better idea. Luke doesn’t hunt.”  
  
“Maybe. I don’t know how much Luke would like playing the middle man,” she said with a smile. Then her light hit a name. “There she is.”  



	4. Chapter 4

“Shit, shit,” Asher hissed, snatching the saucepot off the burner, smoke pouring out from around the lid. He’d gotten caught up in the show running on his laptop, and any spare glances he had were towards Cole, on his back and babbling away on the floor, batting at his toy arch over his head. Cole, after all, was well fed, whereas Asher’s stomach was rumbling. For spaghetti and burnt sauce, apparently.  
  
He hit his spacebar, pausing the show as he tried to figure out how to fix the meal from the ashes. There was a notification noise from the computer speakers, and a message from Luke’s skype handle.  
  
 _I could really go for Chinese right now. This house arrest crap sucks._  
  
Asher gave a breath of a laugh, typing back,  _tell me about it. if i wasn’t having to decide between rent and food this month, i’d order some now. just fucked up spaghetti._  
  
 _Good job, genius. Achievement unlocked: Burning Water._  
  
“Tell me about it,” he huffed. There was a high-pitched yell from Cole’s direction, Asher looking up sharply. The kid had gotten hold of one of the dangling stuffed animals and was apparently going for a victory yell.  
  
 _can i use the rugrat as an excuse? he’s getting pretty active_.

 _Don’t you work at a bar, though?_  
  
Asher pursed his lips.  _supposed to. been taking time off for the kid when mike needs it. boss isn’t happy._  
  
 _Sounds like the babysitting net needs to widen a little. Mike isn’t exactly feeding you or paying you for watching the tater tot._  There was a pause, and then another notification.  _I need your opinion on this. I’m sending you a file now._  
  
 _Yeah, sure_. He clicked it to download and turning his attention to the sauce again. When it pinged about the download’s success, he clicked twice. Then his phone beeped. He walked over taking it from the coffee table. It was a text from Luke.  
  
 **MIKE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT U VISITING WHEN THIS IS DONE, U STILL WANNA?**  
  
Asher frowned. Why did Luke text him instead of hitting the chat? Then he heard it from the laptop; a muffled scream. The same scream he’d heard two days about. His insides turned to ice. It was the video.

* * *

The coffin was still new, and a nice one, too. There was no way he was going to be able to split open the top like they normally did whenever digging up an older body.  
  
“Mom and Dad sure pulled out all the stops,” he grumbled. “Pass me the crowbar, wouldja?”  
  
Erika handed it down, keeping the light steady though her expression was a bit stony. Her mind couldn’t help but flash to Cole. She couldn’t imagine that kind of pain.  
  
“I can take over if you’re tired.”  
  
“Yeah, okay,” Mike said, tossing the shovel over the opposite edge that she was standing on before reaching up to heft himself out. He was caked in dirt, and there was obvious fatigue lingering in his eyes.  
  
She hopped down without hesitation, taking up the crowbar and getting to work.  


* * *

Cole had about as many different kinds of crying as a person did vocabulary, but the one that came out of him as the room suddenly dropped ten degrees was one Asher didn’t know. It wasn’t hard to guess. He was almost shrieking with it. Asher dove for him, snatching him up roughly, which just made Cole wail higher.  
  
There wasn’t time to think. He ran for the cupboard, snatching out a canister of salt and setting Cole on the tile as he worked on drawing a circle around them. He’d barely managed to finish a C-shape before he was thrown with the full force of a wrecking ball into the door of his pantry. The young girl materialized a second later in front of him, her skin milky-white and murder in her eyes. Each breath coming with a sharp pain, Asher swung his arm, an arc of salt slicing through her and making her disappear with a scream. Clutching an arm around his chest, he moved to get to Cole again.  
  
Just as suddenly as she had disappeared came the sudden, screaming white in his gut. He could feel her icy breath on the back of his neck, accompanied by the dissociative sensation of his stomach being pressed outward. Asher screamed, his body collapsing forward to the floor, but the pain just pressed sharper. He tried to move, tried to think, but his whole being was paralyzed by the hand plunging through him. He was powerless to do anything.

* * *

They worked in sync, with Erika handling the bag of salt and Mike the kerosene. It was unnerving, looking down at the young girl’s body in the casket, still very recognizable from her photograph. They’d dressed her and painted her for an open-casket it looked like, but there was no sign of the damage done to her body. It was like looking at a porcelain doll with its eyes closed. Ten years of hunting, and funeral services still creeped him out.  
  
As the last of the tank was emptied, Mike pulled out his strike-anywhere match box, struck a stick, and tossed it into the hole. The fire leapt up in an instant, reminiscent of a stone being dropped in a pool of water as it rippled outward to every edge of the body.  
  
Erika heaved a sigh, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze. “I don’t know what’s worse; the fact that it never gets easy or the idea that someday it might.”  
  
Mike could think of something worse. The thing he learned pretty quickly, both through stories at his in-law’s dinner table and the occasional older hunter they’d run with when a job got too big for them to handle on their own: the day when the job claimed him, either his life or his sanity. He thought of his son, no doubt asleep by now at his brother’s house. He thought of Erika, her hand still warm in his as he squeezed it back, but what if one day he wasn’t fast enough to get her out of the line of fire or vice versa?   
  
But it was good work. He was keeping other people alive, people who didn’t know how to protect themselves. Innocent people. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made.  
  
“C’mon. All I want is a hot shower.” It wasn’t the whole truth. What he wanted was his own bed, with her spooning up against him and the both of them sated and satisfied. But a shower was a good place to start.  
  
Bringing his hand up to kiss it, she finally let it go, turning to collect their stuff. “Oh shit.” She grabbed up the evidence bag, keyboard still inside. They’d almost spaced it. Gently, she dropped it into the flames.

* * *

There was a sudden burst of flame and an unearthly scream, and the sharp press of pain at the center of him disappeared. Asher gulped down air, his whole body shaking. He’d heard enough to know what ghosts looked when they went up. Mike and Erika must have gotten there.  
  
Cole’s cries echoed in his head, like the terrified bleating of a lamb. He made to push to his knees, but his whole torso erupted in fire. All he could manage was a ginger crawl, tucking his arm under Cole’s head, and pulling him close.  
  
“Hey, hey Cole boy, it’s okay,” he soothed though his voice was rough. He carefully brushed away some grains of salt that had gotten on Cole’s face. “It’s okay. Mommy and Daddy did it; we’re fine. Daddy’s always gonna save you, you got that?”  
  
He put the tip of his finger in Cole’s mouth, since there wasn’t a pacifier nearby. Cole made a couple weak attempts at trying to cry around it, but soon he was reaching up to catch Asher’s finger in a chubby little fist as he gummed the digit. There was a faint nip of pain as the teeth caught his skin, but it barely registered in scale of what the poltergeist had done to him. Sagging, Asher closed his eyes, ignoring the protests of his body. His hand shook slightly but he tried to keep it steady for Cole.  
  
“Can’t tell Mommy and Daddy about this, okay?” he said, mostly just to hear his own voice and know everything was okay. “They’d never let me ‘sit you again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please follow effyeateamfreewill2 on tumblr for more great stories and content in the TFW 2.0 universe.


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